Sturm Ruger enters legislative gun fight

Rob Varnon

Published 10:01 pm, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Southport-based gunmaker Sturm Ruger is getting into the gunfight with more than 660,000 customers already participating in its campaign to get gun owners into the debate on proposals to curb firearm sales.

Ruger's web site invites people to send a pre-written letter to Congress urging them to not ban assault weapons and instead to focus on mental health and enforcing current gun laws. The company said on its site that it is a responsible gun maker and takes that responsibility seriously. It declined to comment further on the campaign.

Other gunmakers have also maintained low profiles, though a weapons system analyst says the future of the industry could be on the line, especially here in Connecticut.

"Some of these things could be devastating," said Dean Lockwood, a weapons systems analyst for Newtown-based Forecast International.

In the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school by Adam Lanza that killed 20 children and six adults in December, President Obama has unveiled proposals to curb gun violence in America. New York has already passed new laws that bans the sale of assault rifles and places a seven-bullet limit on magazine clips for semi-automatic weapons. Connecticut is also pursuing new gun control laws and a special advisory committee is investigating the Sandy Hook tragedy, holding its first hearing on Thursday to listen to experts on the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech shootings.

The National Rifle Association has a similar campaign to Ruger's under way. And the White House has also taken to the digital world, urging people to get involved via social media.

Economically, this is a very important issue for the state, said Lockwood, a weapons system analyst for Newtown-based Forecast International. He said it's not something the gunmakers or gun owners can sit out.

Shares of Ruger were flat in Tuesday trading, closing down 1 cent at $52.47.

Despite losses of companies like Remington, Winchester and Marlin over the years, Connecticut's gun industry is a strong one, though a quiet one. Most firms, which are privately held, will not talk to the media and only Ruger is publicly traded in Connecticut. Overall, the industry employs about 2,900 in the state.

Ruger's Connecticut operations are mostly administrative, with its manufacturing being conducted mostly in Arizona and New Hampshire. But there are still guns being made here in high numbers. Colt operates in Hartford and West Hartford, Mossberg, famous for shotguns, is in North Haven, Charter Arms is in Shelton and there a couple other smaller boutique gun makers in the state, he said. And these companies depend on sub contractors, many of whom are smaller machine shops.

The general counsel for Mossberg, a family-owned business, was not immediately available on Tuesday for comment.

At the federal level, bans and new laws are going to take time to craft and of the 23 actions the President said he plans to take, 20 are really just enforcing laws that are already on the books. But Lockwood said there is at least one move that gun owners and the industry should be concerned about and that's making gun violence a health issue and putting it under the auspices of the Center for Disease Control.

"Once you start putting the discussion of gun control under the CDC, you're giving them administrative power to determine whether guns pose a health crisis," he said.

Despite that concern, Lockwood said the most pressing issue for the industry in the state is what happens in Hartford.

"Potentially, what's being thrown around in Hartford, what's being written, some of it is practical, (but) some of these things could be devastating to a firm like Colt and its subcontractors," he said.

He said one proposal he's seen would limit the capacity for magazines to one round.

"Even bolt-action rifles have the capacity for five," he said.

What's important is the wording of legislation, he said. New York is a good example, according to Lockwood. The Empire State passed a series of gun laws that reduced the number of rounds in magazines to seven, but apparently forgot to exempt law enforcement, he said.